Quasisteady theory for the hydrodynamic forces on a circular cylinder undergoing vortex-induced vibration

Vortex-induced vibrations of a rigid circular cylinder were studied by constructing a theory based on a wake oscillator model under quasisteady approximations, thereby evaluating vortex-induced hydrodynamic forces acting on the cylinder. A lock-in limit line representing the boundary for the occurrence of frequency lock-in was also theoretically derived. Hydrodynamic forces in forced oscillation problems estimated by the theory were compared with measured ones. Although some discrepancies were found, particularly in cases with high-frequency oscillations, good agreement was achieved in most cases. Accordingly, we conclude that the present theory captures well real phenomena in the wake downstream of a cylinder subjected to a flow.     

Analysis of the slowly varying drift force on a very large floating structure in multidirectional random seas

In designing the mooring system of a very large floating structure (VLFS), it is essential to estimate the slowly varying drift force in random seas. For a small vessel, Hsu's method or Newman's approximation may be used to simulate this slowly varying drift force. However, based on experiments and/or field observations, it was found that the slowly varying drift force acting on a VLFS could be reduced to a great extent from the simulated values based on those methods. Thus, the conventional methods are not applicable for a VLFS. This discovery led to the development of several methods for estimating the slowly varying drift force on a VLFS, e.g., Namba et al. (J Soc Nav Archit Jpn 186:235–242, 1999), and Shimada and Maruyama (J Soc Nav Archit Jpn 190:347–351, 2001). However, Namba's method is only applicable to a pontoon-type VLFS with a shallow draft, and Shimada's method is too simplified to account for the general shape of a VLFS and elastic deformation. These methods have been expanded in this article, and by our proposed method, any shape of VLFS and the effect of elastic deformation of the VLFS can be included. Formulations and several numerical examples are given.